New Album & The Beginning of Basketball Season

From nba.com

No. 1: Report: Love willing to opt in if traded to Warriors — As was reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears and Adrian Wojnarowski (and also reported by ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard), Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James has reached out Minnesota Timberwolves star forward Kevin Love to let Love know he’d like him to join the Cavs. Doing so would likely require the Cavs parting with No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, as Broussard, Wojnarowski and Bob Finnan of The News Herald & The Morning Journal all point out. Another team believed to be in the Love mix, the Golden State Warriors, may still have a shot at him, too. According to Yannis Koutroupis of BasketballInsiders.com, Love is willing to opt into his deal for 2015-16 if he’s dealt to Golden State:
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the Golden State Warriors are increasing their efforts to land Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star forward Kevin Love.
Love has recently been linked to trade talks with the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James has even reached out and voiced his desire to play with him according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Cavaliers are willing to let go of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft Andrew Wiggins, but the Warriors are now willing to let go of Klay Thompson as well.
The Warriors have been trying to acquire Love without letting go of Thompson, but have come off of that stance because Love is willing to exercise his option for the 2015-16 season and put off becoming a free agent next summer according to a source.
David Lee and Harrison Barnes are expected to be a part of the deal as well. No trade is imminent, but the Warriors are willing to do whatever it takes to land Love now – even if that means letting go of a franchise favorite in Thompson.
This news, though, contradicts the reports of Wojnarowski and Broussard to an extent. Both reporters say Love would like to play alongside James and would even consider a long-term deal with Cleveland if such a trade were to materialize. In short, these trade talks remain as unclear as ever.
 
I must admit that I don't like the fact that a player(s) can become so influential that he, rather than the team's front office can dictate who is going to play for that team. Now would I have been on board if Kobe was still so influential that he could bring prestigious players to the Lakers such as LBJ.....well ;)
 
Steve Williams said:
I must admit that I don't like the fact that a player(s) can become so influential that he, rather than the team's front office can dictate who is going to play for that team. Now would I have been on board if Kobe was still so influential that he could bring prestigious players to the Lakers such as LBJ.....well ;)
Click to expand...

Well, the practice of players 'recruiting' players has been there for a while now. I recall even the Big 3 of the 2008 Celts physically went to the home of then retired PJ Brown to ask him to join the C's during the All-Star Break. Friendship counts these days, and none more evident than that of Wade and James, which is the opposite of Kobe and Dwight. :D
 
Now I wonder if dispatching Wiggins for Love is a wise move for Cleveland? I'd rather throw in Bennett, Waiters and some draft picks. I am feeling that Wiggins, though raw, can develop into a superstar soon. But then again, Flip Saunders is playing real hard ball for the Love suitors.
 
KD likes to be in DC come 2016. He'd like to 'come home' too. And John Wall and Bradley Beal is waiting for him.

http://www.csnwashington.com/basket...k/kevin-durant-dc-train-2016-gains-more-steam


LAS VEGAS -- The Kevin Durant-to-D.C. watch is in full-effect, first talked about this weekend by CSNWashington.com here when the Wizards refused to match a salary demand from Trevor Ariza and let him go via trade to the Houston Rockets. Now, ESPN's NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith offered this perspective on Durant during an interview with ESPN 980:

"There are folks that I’ve spoken to that are relatively close to Kevin Durant that tell me if he were to decide to leave Oklahoma City, it would be for the nation’s capital. That’s the kind of dude he is. That’s a place that he would consider. I certainly don’t want to sit here as a reporter and insider and try to give indications that he’s planning on leaving Oklahoma City,” Smith said. “I don’t know that to be sure. I don’t know that to be the case. But I was told that if there is a team that would be strongly considered, it is the Washington Wizards, and him returning home.”

It's true that the Wizards are trying to balance a lot of priorities at once: Keep salary cap flexibility for 2016 when Durant becomes a free agent, remain competitive by keeping core players John Wall (done) and Bradley Beal (eligible for extension after 2014-15) and having a low-post presence with Marcin Gortat (done).

The rest of the pieces, such as Paul Pierce who was brought in to fill the void left by Ariza, are complementary. He'd come off the books in two seasons, possibly just one if he bypasses his player option, along with Nene who will free up $13 million in cap space. Otto Porter, the No. 3 overall pick in 2013, could be the ideal sixth man in this scenario. Or the Wizards could go with Porter in the starting lineup, too, to spread the floor and give Gortat the paint all to himself.

Smith, who correctly predicted LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat in 2010 and returning this summer, is probably onto something.

The same goes here in regards to the Wizards' long-term plans. The Wizards didn't chase James in free agency because they had no indication (usually this would be communicated by the player's agent to a team) or chance at landing him. But they're positioning their pieces on the chess board for two years from now.

What does that tell you? The Wizards' front office likely knows something that those who call this baseless speculation do not -- as they should. Though none of this means Durant to D.C. is a certainty, they do have a legitimate chance. Probably the best chance of any franchise to lure him away from Oklahoma City.

Just like they knew if they allowed Ariza to leave for Houston by not submitting to his $10 million per year demand, they had Pierce. Decisions such as these aren't made blindly or solely on hope. It's being made because Durant to D.C. has legs.
 
http://www.thewire.com/business/201...onald-sterling-remains-clippers-owner/374873/

13 Min Ago / Sterling vs. the NBA
Doc Rivers Will Quit if Donald Sterling Remains Clippers Owner
Polly Mosendz

The seemingly never-ending saga of Donald Sterling attempting to keep hold of the L.A. Clippers hit another snag today. Doc Rivers, the coach of the Clippers, has threatened to quit if Donald Sterling remains the owner of the team.

Today, interim CEO of the Clippers Richard Parsons served as a witness in court to support Shelly Sterling's attempt to sell the team for $2 billion to Steve Ballmer. Donald Sterling, her estranged husband, took her to court to try and block the sale.

Shelly Sterling was able to sell the team to Ballmer by removing Donald from the Sterling Family Trust after doctors found her husband "mentally incapacitated." Sterling's lawsuit aims to stop the sale of the team, as he argues she released his medical history without his consent.

Parsons testified that Doc Rivers has said if Donald Sterling remains owner, Rivers will quit. This would be a major blow to a team already in chaos because of Sterling's poor reputation.

In the event the sale is not completed by September 15, the NBA says it can seize the team and put it up for auction.
 
The Los Angeles Lakers and Byron Scott have agreed on a four-year, $17 million deal. The Lakers hold a team option on the final year of the deal.
ESPN first reported the deal Saturday night.
Lakers owner Jim Buss made Scott a verbal offer on Thursday and Scott and his representatives were reviewing it.
Scott, who has coached the New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers, played a key role as a player in helping the Lakers win three of their five NBA championships in the 1980s.
The Lakers have been without a coach since Mike D'Antoni resigned at the end of the regular season. Scott interviewed for the job three times, but the team decided to wait until after the draft in June and free agency this month before making a hire.
Lakers star Kobe Bryant has endorsed hiring Scott. The two were Lakers teammates in 1996 when Bryant was a rookie. As a coach, Scott is 937-416 in the regular season and 33-24 in the playoffs with the Nets (2000-04), Hornets (2004-09) and Cavaliers (2010-13).
 
Why are the Lakers hiring Byron Scott as head coach?

By Brett Pollakoff

The Lakers waited almost three full months to make a firm decision on the franchise’s next head coach, after Mike D’Antoni resigned back on April 30. And while the apparent choice to bring in Byron Scott was somewhat expected all along, it remains an underwhelming one, at best.

The reason for keeping the position open for so long had to do with the front office wanting to see how the roster came together, while it chased free agents in LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony that the team never truly had a shot at landing.

Once the new players were in place — a list that includes serviceable players in Jeremy Lin, Carlos Boozer and Ed Davis, along with others like Nick Young, Jordan Hill and Ryan Kelly who returned from last season’s lottery team — the offer went out to Scott.

The question, however, remains why.

The Lakers interviewed Lionel Hollins, Alvin Gentry and George Karl, all of whom have recent track records of success coaching at the NBA level, and would have been legitimate long-term solutions. Scott, meanwhile, has a career won-loss record of 416-521, and has had just one truly successful season in his last 10 as a head coach, while flaming out somewhat miserably in his last position, an ill-fated three-year stint with the post-LeBron James version of the Cavaliers.

Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles outlined the reasons from the Lakers side of things, but even when looking at things through the team’s eyes, they don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.

It wasn’t just about his ties to the Showtime era, but that surely helped. It wasn’t just that he was around the team all last season as an analyst for the Lakers’ television station, Time Warner Cable SportsNet, and had an intimate knowledge of what went down, but that helped too.

The Lakers franchise also wanted to establish a clear defensive identity after being atrocious on that end of the court last season, and Scott’s credentials include a strong defensive-minded reputation.

Wait, what’s that about defense, now?

From John Schuhmann of NBA.com:

The Cavs ranked in the bottom five in defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions) in each of Scott’s three seasons. That’s not just bad. It’s unprecedented.

Before Scott, the last coach to lead his team to the bottom five in defensive efficiency in three straight seasons was Mike Dunleavy, who did it with Milwaukee from 1993-94 to 1995-96, a streak that started when the league had only 27 teams. So Scott is the only coach to do it in a 30-team league. …

You could look at those Cleveland rosters (2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13) and note their youth and lack of talent. Indeed, Scott didn’t have much to work with. But bottom five for three straight years speaks for itself. Scott had a No. 1 defense in New Jersey and top 10 defenses twice with the Hornets, but he wasn’t able to coach the young Cavs up. Under Mike Brown last season, Cleveland jumped from 27th to 17th in defensive efficiency.

The evidence shows, at least defensively, that Mike Brown did a better job coaching than Scott — think about that for a second, Lakers fans, and then perhaps get a friend or two to restrain you from leaping off of the upper level of Staples Center.

So, fine, the Lakers aren’t all that tuned in to Scott’s ability to coach on the defensive end. The other reason he’s getting the job, however — and it’s a big one — is making sure that Kobe Bryant is sufficiently placated during his last couple of seasons in Los Angeles.

But really, the Scott hire comes down to one man: Kobe Bryant. L.A. invested close to $50 million in Bryant over the next two seasons when he’ll be 36 and a 19-year veteran and 37 and a 20-year veteran. …

Whichever coach the Lakers decided on would have to mesh well personalitywise with Bryant first and foremost and, beyond that, play a system that would help Bryant continue to be productive even as Father Time is taking his toll. …

The Lakers have always operated with championships on the mind, but with a title pretty much out of the picture in the short term, they simply want to get back to having their team and everything that surrounds it be an accurate reflection of all the winning the franchise has already accomplished.

Again, this is the Lakers thinking — realizing that winning anything of importance next season is completely out of the question, the team decided to make sure Bryant is happy instead of adequately planning for a not-too-distant future when he’s gone from the team forever.

Hiring retreads, especially those without a recent history of succeeding in their profession, is a practice more and more teams have gone away from, for reasons that should be obvious. The Celtics hired Brad Stevens, a young and successful coach at the college level, and gave him a relatively unheard of six-year deal to give him time to put a winning culture in place. The Suns hired a former player in Jeff Hornacek, who immediately overachieved in his first season and had a relatively undermanned Phoenix team within one game of the playoffs in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. And the Cavaliers are perhaps the best example of a team willing to take a calculated risk with a new head coach, hiring David Blatt following his successful run coaching overseas, and doing so even with the looming possibility of LeBron James returning to Cleveland for what will be Blatt’s first NBA season.

Teams aren’t gambling wildly with these types of hires. Instead, they’re taking well-educated guesses about which up-and-coming coach might have the best chance of setting up a franchise for years of continued prosperity.

Now, maybe Scott will exceed expectations, and if he doesn’t, maybe he’ll be gone at the same time Bryant is, and a new coach will be brought in to guide the team into its next era. But all this hire does is reflect the Lakers glorious past, while doing nothing to set them up for success in the immediate future.
 
Good news today for the Clippers. The probate court made a tentative ruling against Donald Sterling and in favor of his wife. The judge went so far as to rule that his decision is not subject to appeal and the sale to Steve Ballmer may proceed. The no appeal ruling is extraordinary. Written decision to follow.

While Sterling may continue to sue in other venues he cannot stop the sale. Further, in the sale agreement his wife agreed to indemnify the NBA against any future judgement against them.

Thank goodness the Donald Sterling era is over for the Clippers.

I am up in the woods in northern Michigan with a spotty internet connection but am definitely a happy man this evening! :)

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sport...lly-clippers-judge-ruling-20140728-story.html
 
WLVCA said:
Good news today for the Clippers. The probate court made a tentative ruling against Donald Sterling and in favor of his wife. The judge went so far as to rule that his decision is not subject to appeal and the sale to Steve Ballmer may proceed. The no appeal ruling is extraordinary. Written decision to follow.

While Sterling may continue to sue in other venues he cannot stop the sale. Further, in the sale agreement his wife agreed to indemnify the NBA against any future judgement against them.

Thank goodness the Donald Sterling era is over for the Clippers.

I am up in the woods in northern Michigan with a spotty internet connection but am definitely a happy man this evening! :)

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sport...lly-clippers-judge-ruling-20140728-story.html
Click to expand...

Good news.
 
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